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ŚREŅIKA, MEGHAKUMĂRA AND NANDIŞEŅA 149 “Whence have you come?” Abhaya said, “ From the city Veņātaţa.”
The king asked: “Good sir, there is a sheth there, named Subhadra and he had a daughter Nandā.” “That is quite right,” he said. The king said again: “ Nandā was pregnant. What offspring did she bear?” Then Śreņika's son, whose row of teeth had beautiful rays, said, “She bore a son named Abhayakumāra, Majesty.” “How does he look? What is he like? ” the king asked and Abhaya said, “Master, consider that I am that same son.”
The king embraced him, seated him on his lap, smelled his head and sprinkled him with tears, as if bathing him, from affection. “Son, is your mother well?” the king asked. Abhaya, his hands folded respectfully announced,
“ Remembering the meeting with your lotus-feet, like a bee, my honored mother is now in a garden outside the city, Master.”
Then the king, a shoot of great joy, instructed Abhaya to bring Nandā, after collecting all her effects first. Then the king himself, his heart torn by great longing, went to meet Nandā, like a rājahansa a lotus. Joyfully, the king saw Nandā in the garden, her girdle loosened, her hair in disorder on her check, her eyes devoid of collyrium, her hair in a braid, her clothes soiled, very thin like a second digit of the moon.' The king rejoiced and conducted Nandā to his own house; and set her in the rank of chief-queen, like Rāma Sītā. Then King Śreņika gave Abhaya the daughter of his sister Susenā, the first place among the ministers, and half his kingdom. From devotion to his father and considering himself an insignificant footman, Abhaya conquered kings who were difficult to conquer.
And now there is a city named Vaiśālī, with extensive wealth, very important, like a crest jewel of the earth as a woman. The king there, whose commands were unbroken like Akhandala's, was called ' Cetaka' because he had made slaves of kings who were his enemies. He had seven daughters, each by a different queen, who were like seven goddesses of the
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